Mark Bowden

Worm The First Digital World War From the author of Black Hawk Down comes the story of the battle between those determined to exploit the internet and those committed to protect itthe ongoing war taking place literally beneath our fi

Title: Worm: The First Digital World War

Author: Mark Bowden

ISBN: 9780802119834

Page: 493

Format: Hardcover

From the author of Black Hawk Down comes the story of the battle between those determined to exploit the internet and those committed to protect itthe ongoing war taking place literally beneath our fingertips The Conficker worm infected its first computer in November 2008 and within a month had infiltrated 1.5 million computers in 195 countries Banks, telecommunicationFrom the author of Black Hawk Down comes the story of the battle between those determined to exploit the internet and those committed to protect itthe ongoing war taking place literally beneath our fingertips The Conficker worm infected its first computer in November 2008 and within a month had infiltrated 1.5 million computers in 195 countries Banks, telecommunications companies, and critical government networks including the British Parliament and the French and German military were infected No one had ever seen anything like it By January 2009 the worm lay hidden in at least eight million computers and the botnet of linked computers that it had created was big enough that an attack might crash the world This is the gripping tale of the group of hackers, researches, millionaire Internet entrepreneurs, and computer security experts who united to defend the Internet from the Conficker worm the story of the first digital world war.

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There is a war being waged in the world today. Not one of the many you read about in newspapers (or newsfeeds) or the ones you see on your televisions and computer screens. This war is going on while we sleep, eat our breakfasts and go about our business, in our cities and suburbs, in the homes of our major industries, in our home computers. Forget the annoying daily viruses that attack, primarily, Windows systems, spewing unwanted spam; forget the unwanted pop-ups that emanate from the same sou [...]

Conficker is the "first Digital World War?!" Get the f*** out of here. Ugh, I knew I remembered Mark Bowden from somewhere. He wrote Black Hawk Down. Not a bad book but you can't shoehorn every damn phenomenon into the category of "war"! As the saying goes, when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.This book is an utter waste of time. If you're interested in the subject you already know everything in it. Do we really need yet another recounting of the internet's origins, ARPANET etc? [...]

I have learned some very basic, geeks how could you know it, information. Definitely written for those of us who have little clue on how a computer works. By adulthood most of us know that if you cannot imagine the end result, don'the start. Well, the Internet began before those doing the connecting thought about security. Considering that the early connectors were the government and large universities,the lack of security shows a lack of maturity. So now we are playing catch-up with barely effe [...]

This book was simultaneously pandering and condescending, plus one of the more melodramatic books I've read in a long time. It's aimed squarely (and I think cynically) at "geeks" and "nerds" who apparently know nothing about computers. Despite almost every single example of an "uber nerd" in the book being basically the opposite of a stereotypical basement-dweller, Bowden treats it as if that's a massive surprise as every new character is introduced. He constantly refers to "the glaze" and "the [...]

This book was Ok. I decided to read it after hearing him speak on Fresh Air. I felt like he did an Ok job of conveying technical information to a presumably non-technical audience. The author will be the first to admit that he's not a technical person, and unfortunately, I do think this comes across in his writing - you can tell that he spent some time coming to understand the various complicated issues involved, but I think that an author who has a more technical background would be able to use [...]

An account of the Conficker worm written for everyman and a pretty excellent primer on computer viruses. I enjoyed learning this stuff from Bowden who handles the technical subject with his usual deft prose. Entertaining and quick moving for 80% of the book. If you feel like skimming through the parts where it details the personality battles between the major players, no one will mind. I found them interesting too.

The subtitle for this book is: The First Digital World War. That’s overstating it, to be honest. The book focuses on the creation of the world’s largest botnet by a worm called Conficker back in 2008.At its peak, it was estimated to have infected between 9 and 15 million machines, and even as late as 2011 was still on roughly 1.7 million. That made it the largest botnet recorded. If all of the devices were used to transmit data together, there was a real possibility it would have overwhelmed [...]

WORM: The First Digital World War. (2011). Mark Bowden. ***. The author is a “science” writer, and attempts to let his reader in on the secrets of the computer threat called the “worm.” During his explanations, he describes the “glaze” that often appears on the faces of the non-computer student when a computer techie tries to explain how things inside a computer work. After about fifty pages of this book, I had acquired the “glaze” to such an extent that I had to go wash my face. [...]

Bowen's latest is an extremely readable, quick history of the Conficker "worm" or malware virus and a loose-knit group of technologues who banded together to defeat it. If you're a technology-illiterate skeptic like me (who, on your worst days, borders on Kaczynski-esque delirium), reading Bowen's elucidation of the internet's inherent fragility will not surprise you.You may be surprised, however, by how readily you catch on to the usually opaque matter of network administration and such digi-ho [...]

Who could have imagined that the entire Internet almost went poof and no one really knew or cared about it? But it did, and the fact remains that it could still happen today, or tomorrow, or in 100 years from now. This book details the effort to stop and contain the biggest and most potentially destructive computer worm ever to hit the Internet. Dubbed Conficker the worm has infected millions of computers around the world, and it was being fought by a small group of computer programmers who coul [...]

The author does a good job of making a “geek” tale readable and interesting. Some humor and drama kept me involved in the story. Generally, the techy aspects are handled with enough detail to challenge the reader without creating the "glaze".The characters are very well developed and the reader can relate to their motives and commitment. Even given that there is some exaggeration, the electronic society is fortunate indeed that these men exist. If you are not already diligent about maintaini [...]

This book is made better by Mark Bowden's writing style. Author of Blackhawk Down he keeps the binary code and TCP/IP, etc. to understandable amounts to avoid that glassy stareill, this is a book about Nerds and geeks, even super-smart geeks. And be glad we have them. This book details their fight against one of the worst computer viruses to date, the Conflicker Worm. I won't ruin the story for you by telling you how it ends but computers worldwide are still infected and could still be taken ove [...]

About a computer worm that created the largest botnet in history, capable of taking down the entire internet, and the cabal of volunteers that tried to fight it. Like most modern wars, this battle doesn't have a clear ending. At its height the worm had infected 10 million computers, and today it still commands a formidable botnet of 400,000. I enjoyed reading about the in-depth investigation and the story behind it. Will be reading more "books about a single event or thing" this year since I lik [...]

I'm not tech-savvy in the slightest. I can open word and Firefox on my old laptop, but that's about as far as my knowledge extends. I also don't read non-fiction very often, so when reading a book like this one I'm not sure what I'm supposed to keep an eye out for, what to question or where to direct my criticism. That all being said, I found this book extraordinarily interesting and engaging. It gave me a look into a world I know little to nothing about and captured my imagination.

This is a breezy read but I didn't learn much beyond what I did from reading Bowden's Atlantic article. And unless one wants to know what members of the anti-Conficker Cabal looked like (especially, strangely, their hair), then reading the article is probably a better use of one's time. And it had fewer typos.

A solid piece of journalism. As far reaching as the event described was even the author is aware of its appearance of having come to nothing. The result is an anticlimactic story. Yet, it was a significant event which has done permanent damage and the implications are frightening. Read this if you are interested in computers and want a view of the people protecting the internet.

What a fascinating book! I know just enough to get through work and life using a computer. This book shows so much we DON'T know and, while it's scary, it's good to be enlightened. It's a book that hasn't lost its timeliness. Anything else I say wouldn't be worthwhile, except that if you use a computer at all, you need to read this book to prepare yourself.

FFS, no. This book is essentially about the Conficker worm/botnet from some years ago. Conficker is reasonably interesting as a subject, but this book is painful for two reasons. First, it's basically a book about a nerdy topic, for nerds, who know nothing about anything in this area -- sort of like writing a military book with lots of military topic for people who have never read a military memoir and who know nothing about the military or related topics. It's simultaneously too detailed and to [...]

Worm was a well told tale of recent Cyber fight against a botnet named Conficker, by a motley band of Internet and security Gurus. Overall sheds some light on the lack of "officially" coordinated cyber efforts around securing the infrastructure as a whole, while lacking a sort of satisfaction as to a conclusion of what happens with the worm. We never learn who created it, why, etc.Overall the book was big on build up, and short on resolution, but had some great insights into the cyber warriors w [...]

I think the title is a tad hyperbolic. The story itself is interesting, along with the primer the book provides on the history of networking and how viruses work. The topic definitely has the potential to lead to "The Glaze", as the book refers to the look people get due to the disinterest/ignorance when it comes to this topic. Bowden, as he's proven he has the talent to do, tells a tale that never becomes boring. And now, I have an even healthier respect for strong computer security practices, [...]

In 2008, a new virus (Conficker) was detected that made use of a wide range of familiar techniques in a new and particularly innovative way to make it very stable and hard to stop the spread of.As the potential danger of the botnet it was creating became clear, an ad-hoc group of industry pros and researchers got together to build defenses against it - requiring the first ever global collaboration of a wide variety of technology organizations with diverse interests.As of today, the worm/botnet s [...]

Pretty nerdy, but fascinating, recounting of the early days of cyber-security and the rise of worms/viruses/bots to infect computers and the internet. But, really more of a wake up call for the need for more security and for the government to get off their duffs and pay attention to their own systems' security.Love Mark Bowden's still of writing and telling a story. I've read about half his books, and will read them all.

Probably a little out of date now (6y since being published), yet it still provides a great insight into the threats of cyber - warfare that exist and also speaks highly of the, largely, volunteer team that polices the net and its infrastructure

SummaryI received this book as a Christmas gift from my boyfriend's mother. I thought that was very sweet and the timing is perfect, since I'm covering more historical security threats in my classes this year. This book covers the Conficker Worm, an extremely powerful malware/worm that was discovered in 2008 but has yet to be destroyed. The group of security professionals who combat it, still do not know who came up with this worm or it's full potential. This is why it's a high priority. It was [...]

The True Story of How Hackers Almost Brought Down the Internet -- and Still CouldIt’s out there. Waiting. Chances are, you’ve never heard of it. Nobody knows who controls it, or why. No one knows what it will do. But its destructive capacity is terrifying.Welcome to the world of cyberwar! And, no, this is NOT science fiction.“It” is the Conficker Worm, an arcane name (an insider’s joke) for the most powerful “malware” — malicious software — yet encountered on the Internet. Firs [...]